Divine Insanity
by Black-Diamonds
Summary: In a world where chaos rules, there's a person that can change your life forever. A twin soul. As Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter are about to learn, even the darkest evil on earth can't change the destiny that awaits you. DM/HP *slash*
1. Convicted:

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Potter, Malfoy or the rest of them. JK does. As if I need to tell a clever cookie like you.  
A.N./WARNING: Slash/Yaoi lies here within(it's mild, but if you don't like that sort of thing, don't read...plain and simple). Thou shall not stir trouble with a big spoon and flame with thine slings and arrows. Constructive and encouraging reviews will be treasured greatly. Part of the title (A Love Before Time), comes from the song of the same name from the motion picture 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'.  
  
*  
  
  
  
"Sirius Black. You have been accused of using the Avada Kedavra curse upon one Percy Weasley."  
At this Mrs. Weasley started bawling and crying out her son's name. Her husband wasn't crying as openly, but it was obvious it took every ounce of strength in him to hold himself from breaking. The loss of his son had hit him harder than he was letting on.  
The judge continued. Like a statue of stone, his face was unmerciful and unfeeling.  
"Do you, Sirius Black, deny this?"  
"No I do not. But I wish for everyone to know I was only-"  
"Silence! You do not have the right to talk except to answer the questions of the court."  
"Let him explain!" Hermione Granger leapt up from her seat at the back and glared at the judge. "Let him tell everyone the truth."  
"Be quiet! Sit down!" The judge's granite eyes looked at her with a coldness that could quench flames. Hermione snorted.  
"You don't scare me you stupid-"  
"Hermione sit down!" Neville hissed, tugging at her robes. The angry fire in Hermione's eyes dulled slightly as she gruffly muttered something under her breath and took her seat again. She glanced over at Harry on the other side of her. His head was bowed, his raven tresses shielding his face. Hermione didn't have to exactly see the deep green behind round black glasses to know that at this moment, Harry's eyes were full of tears. As she turned back to the front of the court, the judge's monotonous yet booming voice came back into focus.  
"...Black, you are hereby charged with the atrocious crime of murdering Percy Adam Weasley. As I am sure you know, the usual punishment for such crimes is a life sentence in Azkaban. However, considering all things as they stand, and your past history, your punishment will be different. You will spend the next month in Azkaban, but on the twenty-third of November, you will be given the Dementor's kiss. This hearing is now over. Court dismissed."  
People slowly shuffled out the door. Sirius didn't have time to glance back at his god-son. He was immediately lead out of a side door by two burly wizards and a dementor. Harry remained where he was, silent tears making silvery trails down his gaunt face. Hermione reached over and gently took Harry's hand in her own.  
"Harry...I..."  
He looked up at her, and the lost look in his eyes scared her. They looked empty...dead, almost. His voice was hollow, and strangely desolate.  
"Hermione, there's nothing to say..."  
"Harry-"  
"Why do I destroy everything and everyone that matters to me? Why are the things I love the most taken away from me?" His eyes still had the haunted look.  
Hermione didn't have an answer. She looked down at her shoes, almost mesmerised by each usual scruffy detail; like the way the laces looped around, and the tiny silver star buckle on each side.  
"Hermione...Sirius died for me. He died for me. Percy was one of Voldemort's followers, and he was sent on a mission to kill me. Sirius stepped in. If he hadn't destroyed Percy, Percy would have destroyed me. And now he's paying with his soul because he saved mine. And I've lost the only parent I've ever really known." Harry's voice cracked with emotion and he started crying openly. Hermione wrapped her arms around the broken boy and let him cry on her shoulder. Her heart ached for him. During the eighteen short years of his life he had suffered so much.  
//Why?// She demanded. //Why him? Whoever's listening --- why is this happening to our Harry? He doesn't deserve it. Wasn't saving the world enough? Why does he have live such a hard life of misery and sorrow??//  
"Shhh....listen," Hermione gently rubbed Harry's back through his robes. "Come on...shhh...it will be all right." Even she knew how pointless her words were. 


	2. Our hour[?] His_story

"I'm forever black-eyed, a product of a broken home..."  
-Black Eyed, Placebo  
  
  
  
"Father." A fine curtain of silken platinum fell over the face of the eighteen year old youth as he lowered his head and stared down at the dirty stone ground.  
"Draco, my son...how you have disappointed me." The man leaned against the metal bars. "I had hoped so much for you, and all you have done is bring shame to our proud name."  
"I tried my best father...I really did." His age and maturity gave way as he bit down softly on his lip. Lucius Malfoy laughed, a hollow rattling sound.  
"I'm sure you did Draco." A dry cough escaped from parched lips.  
"But it does not matter now. I am in here, my days of serving our glorious Lord are over."  
//Our glorious Lord? I think not father, I believe the correct term is, YOUR seriously unhinged psycho-Lord//  
"I understand father. I am to return to Malfoy manor and sort things out?"  
"No..." Lucius Malfoy stared eagerly at his son, a strange light in his eyes. "You are to take my place in the circle of the Death Eaters. You will uphold the Malfoy name with pride. Each breath you breathe, each kill you make...it will be all for the honour of our family."  
//What's with this our thing? You never bothered with me before. I was just the short obnoxious thing that kept your precious blood line going//  
"Father, I do not believe you should place such an..." His words had to be chosen carefully. "...honourable and important responsibility on my shoulders. After all, I'm only eighteen years old, and as you've said so yourself many times in the past, I am unworthy of anything. Perhaps cousin Demetrius would-"  
"You are my son! You will do what I bloody well tell you to!"  
"Why should I!?" Draco's eyes flashed angrily as he lost his feigned calm composure. "I don't want to end up with my ass in some horrible warped wizard cell surrounded by freaks!" His mind was abuzz with a sickening anger and loathing for the vile man whom he used to regard as his father.  
"You're a coward." A bitter sneer on Lucius Malfoy's face reflected his hatred for his son. "You're nothing but a filthy little coward."  
Draco's head snapped up and he glared at Lucius.  
"Goodbye, Lucius Malfoy." He stalked off into the shadows, not glancing back for a moment at his father. 


	3. Angel Boy: Broken Halo

Disclaimer: Slash. If you don't like it, why are you still here? And I don't own Harry Potter and so on and so forth(we all know JK does).  
  
  
  
Draco sat in a large leather armchair by the fire place, curling his bare toes in the warmth that radiated from the crackling logs. His brows were knitted together tightly as he stared deeply into the leaping flames. With trembling fingers he picked up a picture from the small end table nearby. His eyes however, did not look out at it...they remained lost in the depths of the fire.  
"I think I really did fail you, father. I know you had hoped for so much from me. Me, your only child. I did mean to make you proud, but it's so hard being someone you're not. And anyway, it doesn't matter any more does it? Nothing matters any more..." Draco let the photo flutter from his fingers. It drifted on to the expensive oriental rug on the floor, causing the image of his father to glare up furiously at him.  
"But you know what? Worst of all is...I think I've never dared to do anything but fail /him/ in every way. I don't think he ever knew that I had faith in him, always." Draco swallowed thickly and took out a crumpled black and white photo from the folds of his soft grey slacks. He stared at the raven-haired boy on the page. It stared back at him with a sullen expression. But then, almost shyly, Harry Potter's lips curved into a tiny smile. Draco traced along the edge of the picture with one finger.  
"Potter..." He murmured softly. "...my scarlet and gold orphan. The world's knight in shining armour. Where are you now when I'm the one who needs to be saved from myself?"....  
"Or are you too busy hating the memory of me? Will you ever give me an answer to my questions, Harry Potter? Or will you just stare at me mutely from the surface of this photo? I think I'm too afraid to ever ask for an answer...I'll just be standing here still, waiting for an absolution."  
Draco slowly folded the picture up again, and put it in his pocket. In the fire light, heavily accentuated shadows flickered and danced on the walls like demons from a netherworld. Mostly they looked like hapless lost souls, fleeting and darting. But every so often, Draco could just spot a slim figure on a broomstick, reaching out to a darting golden ball.  
Alone in the secluded sanctuary of his childhood home for the very last time, Draco Malfoy let beads of sadness flow freely, yet silently, down his face, cooling the fire-warmed skin of his cheeks. 


	4. Ice. Frozen

Sirius Black's cave felt barren without his warm presence. Harry sat on the dusty bare floor looking at his watch, counting down the minutes and the seconds until the Dementors would claim Sirius' soul, and Harry's godfather would be taken out of his life forever. Harry suddenly felt incredibly tired. He drew a small circle in the sand with the tip of his index finger, watching his finger repeatedly trace the circular trench in the dusty brown dirt.  
Three minutes to go. Harry slowly stood up and jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He silently watched the first rays of the sun peek over the distant line of the horizon.  
A moment.  
A second.  
Sirius was gone.  
Harry felt like he couldn't cry anymore. It was almost as if the tears just simply refused to come. Nothing really mattered anymore, did it? He was the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Die-Alone. He had the fame and the material possessions if he so wished for(he'd been offered several high-pay jobs at the Ministry)...but nothing REAL. Nothing real to the heart.  
Even Hermione and Ron...the other two members of the Golden Trio...were becoming...well...just Hermione and Ron. No longer were they the valiant Gryffindor group that saved the world from nasty monsters and beings...they were three separate individuals, Harry being even more separate from the other two.   
Ron wasn't talking to him. It hurt Harry that the Percy.Sirius issue had come between them like a sharp blade. Although, his head had already known what would happen. It was his heart that had hoped with all hope that Ron would remain a friend.  
Ron had turned cold and hateful when his brother had died at Sirius' hand. He didn't understand that it was for Harry. He didn't believe that his amazingly intelligent big brother had turned into the Big Bad Wolf. And so he had turned away from Harry.  
Hermione, although very much a believer in Sirius, was engaged to Ron. Harry was afraid that before long, she too would drift away from  
him.  
And he would be left in the middle of the Atlantic, sinking like a doomed ocean liner. The unsinkable Harry Potter felt like he would soon come to die in a watery grave of the mind and soul. 


	5. an end_a beginning

"Are you sure you don't want to continue staying with us?" Hermione tilted her head and looked at Harry as he slowly packed his things. Harry wasn't sure of many things anymore, not since Sirius' death...and well, not since the things he had lived through and experienced in his life. But he was sure that he wouldn't be able to stay in this house and stay sane.  
The small house he had shared with Ron and Hermione since graduating had suddenly become like a tomb, suffocating and hostile. Especially at those moments when he and Ron had to be in the same room at the same time.  
"Nah...wouldn't want to intrude on the newly weds." Harry gave her a smile.  
"Soon-to-be newly weds Harry." Hermione corrected. "And are you definitely sure you're not coming to the wedding? It would mean a lot to us you know..."  
Harry gave her a firm nod.  
"Yes. Yes, I'm sure. I don't want to ruin Ron's big day. I want you two to be happy."  
"But how can we be happy if you aren't there to give us your blessing at the wedding? You're our best friend Harry."  
"You know you already have my blessing. You know you do. I just think it's time I found my niche in the world..."  
"Oh Harry!" Hermione flung herself at Harry, tears burning in the depths of her eyes. "I'm sure going to miss you something fierce! You have to keep in touch okay? Don't do the whole muggle thing about running off into the sunset and never appearing again."  
"I wouldn't dream of it, 'Mione. Now promise me you'll do all the things you've always dreamed of and never stop shining."  
Hermione nodded quickly, hugging Harry tightly. Harry leaned over slightly and kissed her forehead gently.  
"I know you'll do great things Hermione, and I'm really going to miss you...both of you."  
*  
Half an hour later Harry as standing at the gate of the front yard. With one final wave back at the house, he quickly prepared to apparate to Diagon Alley, where he would sort things out and plan the rest of his life. But as the familiar feeling of disapparating took over his body, something inside his mind told him that he wasn't going to apparate on to where he intended...but somewhere completely different.  
And he was right.  
When Harry felt his feet once again touch solid ground, he was far from Diagon Alley... 


	6. In the mist of your misery

Harry found himself in a dimly lit alley, where curls of pale mist swirled around the cobblestone street at ankle level. At first he thought it was Knockturn Alley. But this place held a certain desolate coldness and desperation that made Knockturn Alley seem like a stroll in the park.  
Small purple bubble-like orbs floated and bobbed in the air close to buildings, casting a soft violet light over the narrow cobble-stone street.  
Harry picked up the heavy smell of exotic flowers. But within the layers of floral scents, Harry could detect something sharp and biting, something venomous. The air, heavy with intoxicating perfumes, made Harry's head swim. Something told him instinctively told him that this was a very bad place...a place of misery and wickedness. A wizarding underworld.  
Suddenly, his ears picked up a soft whimpering/sobbing sound. Harry squinted into the shadows and sub-shadows, straining to see something in amongst the darkness - perhaps the source of the crying. As his eyes finally spotted a shifting silhouette of a lithe figure, the crying abruptly stopped.  
"Rack off you impudent orphan." A gruff voice growled.  
Harry didn't recognise the voice at first. It seemed to have a silken quality that was broken with a strange sense of sorrow. Harry hesitantly stepped towards the man.  
"Are you okay? I mean, do you need help or-"  
"I said sod off! Are you deaf Potter?!"  
"Malfoy!?" Harry cried incredulously. He took out his wand from the folds of his robes, and quickly muttered "Lumos."  
The wavering light from the tip of Harry's wand revealed, indeed, Lucius Malfoy's only child, half-standing/half-crumpled against the stone wall.  
"You don't look too good Malfoy."  
"Oh very good Potter. Well done." Draco raised one hand in a mock-salute. Harry could see that he was holding some kind of vial that had a strange silver substance in it. Harry's guess was that it was wizard drugs. Draco suddenly laughed, an oddly deranged giggle.  
"I'm fine, okay? I'm perfectly absolutely fine. I DON'T NEED YOUR BLOODY HELP!" He scowled at Harry.  
"Oh sure...yeah, you look great. Practically a porcelain doll. Look Malfoy, I know you can be a git, but really, I think you are in need  
of some help."  
"Don't be absurd, you misguided wretched fool. Who are YOU to tell ME anything??" Draco glared furiously at Harry with crystalline blue eyes tainted dull red.  
"You've been crying." Harry stepped even closer. Draco edged further away from him until he was backed up into a corner. He roughly swiped at his cheeks, a blush turning his skin a soft pink.  
"You don't know what you're talking about. You're as mad as that mudblood of yours." Draco sneered, a malicious glint suddenly glowing in his eyes. "Poor mad deluded Potter."  
"Shut up!" Harry suddenly snapped. All the pent-up emotion of the past few weeks bursting like a broken dam. "Shut up!" His fist swung out and connected with the soft line of Draco's jaw. Harry gasped as he realised what he'd done.  
For a moment, Draco stood motionless. Then he slowly raised his hand to his mouth. As he pulled his fingers away, Harry could see they were covered in blood.  
"I'll get you for that Potter." Draco hissed, his face death cold. "I'll get you." With that he suddenly knocked Harry aside and randown the alley through the unsettling gloom, and all Harry could do was watch, confused, horrified, and even more confused.  
Harry shook his head, and muttered a quiet "Go figure".  
Oh well. Life went on. And if one little wizard-drug-sniffing-ferret thought he could ruin the first day of the rest of Harry's life then he obviously thought wrong. Harry just didn't have the energy to care much about such things anymore.  
But just as he was picking up his bags that had fallen to the ground when he'd apparated here, Harry heard an unmistakable scream cut through the eerie silence of the street. He wanted to just shrug that off too. But something in his heart pounded with fear for all the nightmarish things that could have happened to Draco in this forsaken and forgotten place of sin.  
Leaving his bags in the corner where Malfoy had been standing, Harry ran after the blonde man, for all he knew, could very well be dead by  
now... 


	7. Nectar

"Get off me! Jesus, oh holy god, AGH!" Draco let out a frightened scream as he felt ice-cold hands tighten their grip around his shoulder and neck. Long skeletal fingers brushed strands of hair away from the milky skin along the side of his throat. Draco struggled in vain to get away from the terrifying creature. He twisted violently in its clutches, but succeeded only in getting a small cut on his cheek from the creature's long purple fingernails. The demonic creature smelled the blood that trailed from the pale man's cheek. It licked it's long glittering fangs in anticipation of the taste of syrupy drug-tainted blood.  
"Please..." Draco whimpered. "Please just let me go..."  
"Let him go!" Someone echoed, except louder than his distressed pleas. Oh great, Draco thought, what a time to start hearing voices. But as his eyes dared to dart to the side, he saw someone he thought he'd never be that glad to see - at least not consciously anyway.  
"Potter!" He cried out in a frantic voice. "Potter help me!" He winced and gasped in pain as the creature dragged a long nail just behind his ear.  
"What is that thing?" Harry called out, not rushing forward blindly to face something he didn't know.  
"A vampire, Potter. Hurry..." Tears flowed down Draco's face as streams of blood dripped from several cuts. "Oh god, help me, please..."  
"A vampire??" Harry murmured to himself. He'd never faced a real vampire before, but if what he'd read in DADA was right...  
"Carpe diem!" He yelled, pointing his wand at the monster.  
"Carpe diem? Potter, for Christ's sakes this isn't a Latin less--oh god." Draco crumpled to the ground as the vampire let go of him.  
Harry's eyes were fixed on the thing in a mixture of horror and fascination. It had the face of a beautiful young woman, except for the scythe-blade fangs that protruded from her full dark lips.  
Suddenly, as the spell took full control of her, her large amber eyes widened in shock. Beams of bright daylight pierced out from her body like daggers, and she started wailing. Soon her wails rose to an unbearable level, and the light grew brighter and brigter until finally, Harry had to close his eyes and block his ears.  
But then there was silence and darkness. Harry opened his eyes slowly. The vampire was gone. And so was Draco. 


	8. Don't Leave

a/n: thanx for the support guys! Sorry this chapter was sooooo very delayed :/  
  
****  
  
Confused, Harry looked around, trying to find the slim blonde man. He heard a muffled sob come from the darkness to his right. Straining his eyes in the dim light, Harry could just make out the lithe form of Draco. The thought of the bitter rivalry in their past didn't even come across Harry's mind as he felt his heart speed up with panic over whether Draco was all right or not. And to his relief, he was all right in the sense that there was no major damage, only some long, deep gashes down his face and neck. As Harry gently helped him up, Draco winced, wiping away some blood that trickled from a slash above his left eye.  
"Are you all right, Draco?" Harry asked softly.  
"No I am not!" Draco snapped. "Do I bloody look all right to you Potter? I was just mauled by a vampire and now I'm going to have an ugly thing like that emblazoned across my forehead forever!" Draco pointed at Harry's scar, scowling viciously. With the streaks of red trailing down his face, he looked like a macabre rain-soaked clown. Harry sighed.  
"Wait here Draco."  
"Why?" Draco sounded like a sullen child. "Why should I do what you tell me to?"  
"Fine. Stay here and die." Harry snapped. He stood up briskly and started to stalk off down the street.  
"Wait..." Came Draco's voice faintly. "Wait, Potter..."  
Harry turned around, crossing his arms.  
"It's Harry, all right? Harry."  
"Harry...I'm sorry. Don't leave me." Draco began to cry softly. "Everybody leaves me. Please don't leave me too."  
The desperation and sadness in Draco's voice made tears rise in Harry's eyes, and he felt a twinge of something in his heart. Harry realised that perhaps there was a kinship between them. They were both scared, cold, alone in the world - but at least he had Hermione, and perhaps one day Ron. From the looks of it, Draco had no-one at all.  
"It's all right..." Harry croaked. He cleared his throat. "I'm not leaving you, Draco. I'm just going to go get something for your wounds."  
Harry could see Draco nod.  
"Okay...but you'll come back, right?"  
"Yes. I'll only be a minute."  
"Promise?"  
Harry sighed and walked over to Draco. He kneeled down, and tilted Draco's chin up, forcing their eyes to meet.  
"I promise I will only be gone a very short time and I will come back to you."  
Draco bit his lip and forced a smile.  
"I must look terrible right now."  
"You do," Harry managed to grin slightly. "But after I get my stuff we'll get out of this place and we'll clean you up. Speaking of which..." Harry looked around at the alien surroundings. "Where exactly is 'here'??" 


End file.
